Jennifer Mandula rewrites Mary Anning’s life

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Q8ogvVjJcNnpreG2lWy7X?si=6wVyJyABSI2AGO_PZHGMfQ

About The Geomagician

When a Victorian fossil hunter discovers a baby pterodactyl, she vows to protect him, with the help of a fellow scholar—her former fiancé—in this enchanting and transporting historical fantasy.

Mary Anning wants to be a geomagician—a paleontologist who uses fossils to wield magic—but since the Geomagical Society of London refuses to admit women, she’s stuck selling her discoveries to tourists instead. Then an ancient egg hatches in her hands, revealing a lovable baby pterodactyl that Mary names Ajax, and she knows that this is a scientific find that could make her career—if she’s strategic.

But when Mary contacts the Society about her discovery, they demand to take possession of Ajax. Their emissary is none other than Henry Stanton, a distinguished (and infuriatingly handsome) scholar . . . and the man who once broke Mary’s heart. She knows she can’t trust her fellow scholars, who want to discredit her and claim Ajax for their own, but Henry insists he believes in the brilliant Mary and only wants to help her obtain the respect she deserves.

Now Mary has a new mystery to solve that’s buried deeper than any dinosaur skeleton: She must uncover the secrets behind the Society and the truth about Henry. As her conscience begins to chafe against her ambition, Mary must decide what lengths she’s willing to go to finally belong—and what her heart really wants.

Book One of The Geomagician Duology

The Geomagician everything and more that I need!

It’s been a while since I’ve rated a book and showed how I got the rating. For Jennifer Mandula’s debut novel The Geomagician, I am willing to take the time to write out why exactly I love it.

First let’s break down what I look at. My ratings are based on World building, Story, Characters, Writing/Prose, and Longevity/Enjoyability. To be fair, I rarely find that stories I finish have poor world building, story, or characterizations. You could say that I usually only bother to write a review if the book meets at minimum those base three. Writing and prose is a category that I like to look at because I like examining writing, and I love reading well written prose. This is where authors can start to lose some stars. If a book is needlessly complicated, it looses half a star for being difficult to read, if it isn’t edited well I will dock a whole star. Lastly, longevity and enjoyability are where I decide if this is a book I will reread, deeply enjoyed, or think will make an impact on the book world in a long standing way.

That is all to say when I tell you that Jennifer Mandula’s The Geomagician meets (and exceeds) those categories, please do not take it lightly.

The book starts off in 1820 something with Mary, a fossil hunter who deeply wants to be recognized by the men who buy her finds. This isn’t your typical fossil hunter story, though. There is magic in this world. Mandula clearly spent time thinking about how magic would change a world. What would the economic implications be, how would people exploit one another, and what would individual stories look like?

We quickly learn that Mary is not well off in a society that (much like ours)

Now, I didn’t know before interviewing Jennifer, but she based Mary on a real woman who lived at this time, and while the real Mary didn’t have magic, she was the best fossil hunter in England. The best. Mandula tried to stay as true to the real world as she could with the exception of magic and the definition of the “Victorian period”, which if you haven’t heard her talk about yet, you really should. It is very funny.